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Rectocele surgery/recovery

Hello to all of you... I am getting ready to have posterior repair and a tweaking of my anterior repair done along with my TVH in Feb 2006. I am having this done abdominally, so as to preserve what feeling is left "down under" My dilemma is this: My husband will be able to take off an entire week, and then half days for another week, but then he will be completely unavailable for at least two weeks after that (he is a Marine Corps Drill Instructor, and we can only have this surgery when he is in between recruit trainings). I have a 7 yr. old who will be in school, and two yr old twin girls. They are VERY good children, but still need a reliable caretaker to do day to day childcare. How hard will it be for me to do this after two weeks? For those who have had abdominal repairs, what can I expect and are there any suggestions for help. Mothers are both unable to come down, and all our sitters work during the day. What did you do to help with childcare issues? Thanks so much for any insight...

Is there a reliable daycare near by? Even if you do not wish to send you children to daycare, the daycare may have the names of some sitters they could give you.

As I have not had any of the repairs done you will be having, I do not know how long you will need help. You can use the search tab above to search for other threads on "anterior repair" or "rectocele" and see what information you can find from some of the older threads.

I had a stage 3 rectocele repaired at the same as my hyst, so it's hard for me to isolate which part of my recovery was due to the hyst and which part was due to the repairs... and what was due to a combination of both

However, I do know that I ended up with enhanced lifting and straining restrictions after I was released to return to most of my normal activities, and this was in order to protect the repairs. Also, with the rectocele repairs, I had a large episiotomy-like incision on the perineum that was rather painful. This prevented sitting and standing for any length of time for several weeks. This means you would not be in a position to taxi kids around for the first 3 or 4 weeks or so.

When I had my surgery, my youngest had just turned 5 and still loved to be held and carried around and it was hard for me not to indulge her. I can only imagine how hard it would be not to lift 2 yo

If hiring a day-care provider to help out is not an option, would it be possible to enlist the help of other young mothers in your area? You could offer to return the favor when you're recovered Or would there be a close friend or family member available to stay with you for a few weeks, until you're up to caring for the kids by yourself?

Hi 3ofakind
I'm not sure where to start. I had A dnd P repairs done at the same time as my SAH. I didn't really have too many problems with the posterior repairs, but it WAS very difficult to sit up straight for a coupld of weeks. I did spend the entire first 2 weeks lying on the couch. (but then there was the abdominal incision and all the repair work done inside, along with resuspending the vaginal vault due to problems caused by my prolapse). I wasn't particularly sore "down there", but I'm really wondering why your doctor wants to do the repairs abdominally??? Will you have a large incision? Or will it be done laparoscopically? The incision was, and still IS the worst part of the healing, and even at 6 months post op I still don't lift anything over about 25 pounds.
Anyway, you really have to drink lots of water, and take stool softeners for quite a while ( a couple of months??) to make sure that there is no straining with BM's to tear the inside stitches.
So. . . you will most likely still need some help with your twins after the 2 weeks. I had 2 teenagers so that wasn't a problem. But if I were you I'd ask about the size of the incision your doctor will use. You could also do a "search" (top right corner of this page under Private Messages) and type in posterior repair, to get some more ideas.
Good Luck!

Hi 3ofakind-I had those repairs and you will have to be extremely careful about the lifting restrictions and not getting constipated. It was a blessing to have my older children around to lift the 2+3yr olds for me. My husband was able to arrange not to travel and work from home so he was able to do the shopping etc. You may check in your neighborhood for teenagers who need extra cash that might be willing to help and even churches in the area might have sources to help while still being inexpensive. We had one 14yr neighbor come over for like 4$hr to watch our kids while we were at the hospital. If you can't find anyone to help please make sure your dh stocks you full of everything you need-easy quick meals and all personal items. I made sure I had a stool by my bed so my 2yr old could climb up for diaper changes and hugs. My big kids 9@10 would do the in and out of crib for me. Our house was a dissaster but when I'm well and healed that can always get cleaned up. I wish I was able to help you myself!! Please take care and we will be praying....lots of hugs to you!!

I have had prolapse surgery with the hysterectomy and again 9 months after the first surgery. Truthfully it is not a walk in the park. The restrictions I was given were much more strict after this surgery than the hysterectomy. No lifting more than 5 pounds, no bending or stretching. No cleaning, not even light cleaning, no vacuuming or laundry. I was not allowed to be on my feet for more than 1 hour at a time.
Since you have 2 year old twins and they require lots of supervision, maybe you can hire a Mother's helper. I'm sure there must be a young teen in the neighborhood, from your church or an older sibling of your 7 year old's classmates who may be able to come over to help. You don't want to go thru all the pain and trouble of surgery only to have it fail because you lifted or did more than you should. Believe me the second time around was no fun! Good luck!
Michelle

Thank you to all of you who have replied to my post. I saw the dr. again last week, and he actually had new info for me. Seems that when I was healing from my TVH and anterior repair, one of my fallopian tubes wiggled it's way into my incision site and has now becomed fused through the scar. Only me... Anyway, he is now going to go in laparoscopically to cut out the tube, and vaginally to fix the rectocele. Has ANYONE heard of this tube thing happening? I was floored and NOT expecting this news. Oh well, at least it won't be a huge incision, just a few holes, right? I think we found a solution to the babysitter dilemma. Thanks for all of your advice!!!